Luminaires having reflectors with sections having different configurations are known, as for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,027,151 issued on May 31, 1977 to F. Barthel and 3,679,893 issued July 25, 1972 to S. Shemitz. In the latter of these, a concave reflector having a parabolic reflecting surface and an elliptic reflecting surface is shown used to provide a uniform magnitude of illumination on a plane. The first named patent shows a three section reflector, two of the sections being generated by the use of a fourth degree polynomial equation.
The combination of elliptic and parabolic sections is also shown by U.S. Pat. No. 2,717,954 to C. Rex issued Sept. 13, 1955.
These patents are illustrative of some combinations of shapes which have been used to provide light from an asymmetric luminaire to illuminate an area or surface extending from the nadir of the luminaire; the luminaire being mounted an appreciable vertical distance above the area surface being illuminated. The luminaires shown also employ a horizontally elongated light source.
Other patents directed to reflectors which have some similarity to that of the present invention are U.S. Pat. No. 1,805,886 issued May 19, 1931 for an automobile headlight, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,913,517 and 1,913,519 to Smith et al both issued June 13, 1933, also for automobile headlights. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,251,984 to Colterjohn issued May 17, 1966 shows a flashbulb for a camera in which the reflector is configured to minimize the incidence of reflected light passing through the lamp tube.